Page 51 of Deadliest Throne

“Would you shut the fuck up,” I snarl. “You don’t understand. These guys will shoot just for looking at them funny. Please don’t let your mouth get us killed before we get Raven back.”

That seems to shut him up.

"Well, I'll be damned." The voice isn't my father's. A tall man steps out of the guard door, followed by two other men. Titus. He's a lot older than the last time we saw him. But he's the spitting image of our father. Tattoos peek out the top of his black dress shirt and on his arms and hands. "Never thought I'd live to see the day I'd get to see my little brothers again."

“What the fuck?” Hunter gapes. “You have an older brother?”

“Hunter,” I hiss, not taking my eyes off the man who I once thought loved us. What a fucking joke.

“Look, we don’t have time to beat around the bush. We need help, and we’ve come to ask Thrasher. We are willing to do pretty much anything. It’s urgent,” Quinton says, and I shoot him an angry glare.

You don’t just show all your fucking cards to these kind of guys. Is he fucking stupid? He should know that by now.

I guess we’re all just desperate to get our girl back and being logical isn’t really our strong suit at the moment.

“Well...” Titus huffs out a chuckle, rolling up the cuffs of his shirt. “Sorry to break it to you, but Thrasher is dead and gone. So unless you’ve brought an Ouija board, you're shit out of luck.”

A wave of pure fucking joy hits me knowing that fucker is dead. Sad it wasn’t by Travis’s and my hands like we’ve always planned. But beggars can’t be choosers, I guess.

“So sorry to hear that,” Travis deadpans.

"I'm sure you are, little brother," Titus replies mockingly.

“Don’t call us that,” I spit. “We stopped being brothers a long fucking time ago.”

Titus shoots me a look that tells me if I was anyone else, I’d be dead. That’s something I guess.

“Look. Thrasher is out, I’m in. I’ve been prez of this MC for five years now. This is Arcadius, my VP, and Otto, my enforcer. I’m sure you remember them?” He raises a brow.

I do. The guys were my brother’s best friends growing up. If it wasn’t for the three of them, I don’t think Travis and I would have lasted as long as we did.

Arcadius looks a lot like he did back then, still has the same dirty blond hair, but fucking hell, the man looks like he eats bodybuilders for a living. Otto with his black hair and piercing blue eyes still has that look like he's plotting how many ways he could kill you before lunch.

“We do,” Travis answers.

Titus looks around at Hunter and Quinton. “I’m going to guess these are some members of your little crew.”

Hunter laughs. “Little? You do know that Black Venom Crew runs pretty much the whole west coast, right?”

“And we run the east.” Titus cocks his head to the side. “For the most part.”

My brows furrow. When we left, they only held power in a few big cities. This is something we should have known about.

“No, you don’t,” Travis says. “Tyrone does.”

Titus’s eyes flare and his lip pulls back. “Not for fucking long. With him dead and fucking gone, everything will be ours.”

“Wouldn’t hold your breath on that one,” I tell him. “That’s why we are here. He’s not dead.”

Titus looks us in the eyes. He doesn’t seem surprised by that news, meaning he knows more than we do. And I need to fucking know.

“Come in,” he says. “Leave your guns with Razor.” Titus turns around and steps back through the guard’s door.

“Are you sure he’s going to be able to help?” Quinton asks, grabbing my shoulder as we start to follow, pulling me to a stop.

“He knows something. And at this point, he’s our best bet.”

Quinton holds my stare for a moment and nods. After giving our guns to his man, we follow after.

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